drowning without you
by baichan
Summary: He sees the bird perched on the roof on a Tuesday, a leg dangling over along with it. The creature is graceful, still except for the minute details of its feathers being tousled by the wind. Black and white and red - such stark colors. It's beauty captures him like a butterfly falling willingly into a net. His breath is stolen and he freezes. (Daemon AU)


He sees the bird perched on the roof on a Tuesday, a leg dangling over along with it. The creature is graceful, still except for the minute details of its feathers being tousled by the wind. Black and white and red - such stark colors. It's beauty captures him like a butterfly falling willingly into a net. His breath is stolen and he freezes.

A brush against his leg brings him back to himself like a leash. He flushes and looks down to where his daemon is staring up with knowing dark eyes.

Sho's ears are flopped forward and he is staring intently at Rei. It's a stare that has a vice grip on his heart and has lead him to where he is now.

Rei leans a hand down to pat the dog daemon on the head and looks back up, still frozen in place where he had been running. Vaguely he hears one of his sempai calling him but he's not paying attention. The beautiful moments been broken and he feels something in him deflate slightly.

The bird is gone like a ghost in the wind.

"Do you think it was a heron or a crane?" Rei asks Sho in the privacy of their room.

The two of them are curled up on his bed - an old book to help people identify what they're daemon had settled as laid forgotten near his feet. He had dug it out and was flipping through the bird section.

Crane or heron, maybe a stork? It had been tall for a bird, slender. The beak had seem pretty short but he had been looking at it from an angle. The colors stick more than anything but it had been stories above him, unreachable and the only thing he truly remembers is the feeling of breathlessness. For all he knows it could have been a pelican, but he sincerely hopes not. The images of them swallowing fish has him cringing and the bile in the back of his throat burns at the almost terrifying images.

It was frustrating. Sure he didn't know everyone in the school and there was a large portion that he had never met, but with a daemon like that it should be easy to find. No one on track had a daemon like that despite the diversity of forms, high jump and pole vaulters like him commonly had birds and the ones who focused on running were trailed by sleek herding dogs and deer depending on the event and then there were the throwers and their larger, stronger bears and big working dogs and even sometimes monkeys.

Sho doesn't say anything but curled himself in closer to Rei. The heat and closeness from his daemon being pressed close has him relaxing and settling even more into his bed. He lets out a breath that's less weary and more pleasant.

Rei strokes the dog's back thoughtfully as he flips through pages, examining picture after picture in the thick tome of daemons.

A boy with an unremarkable bird daemon (except for its disproportionately long beak and flushed chest), approaches him about swimming again and again. Rei wishes he would stop. He can't swim, neither can Sho - and why should he bother? It's such an ugly sport lacking beauty.

Besides he was busy with track, and his new 'research project' eats up hours without him even noticing. The boy was just wasting his time, following him during his runs and watching him during practice. He is slightly intrigued though about this 'Haru-chan' and a thought snags, what if his daemon is _that_ daemon?

"You should try it," Sho says in his rich, even voice, completely derailing Rei's thought process, "swimming that is."

Rei splutters, book about birds perched delicately on his knees opened to the pages of non-passerines. It falls and hits the floor with a soft thud sound and a fluttering of glossy pages like wings.

Sho is staring at him so intensely with his knowing eyes that Rei's protests die on his lips. His daemon knows what's best for him after all, maybe it can't hurt. Maybe Sho knows something he doesn't.

As long as he doesn't swim he should be fine.

Sho leaps gracefully off the bed and retrieves the book. Rei can't help but appreciate the grace his daemon exudes. When he was young he had hoped for a bird - something that soared through the sky along with him. Something graceful and beautiful.

Sho defied his expectations, as he usually does. His form couldn't have been more elegant - even if it lacked the delicacy he craved. Sometimes, Rei thinks it's a shame that he was the human and Sho the daemon. Sho is much more responsible, always leading, always guiding.

Rei heard that most people who are blind have dog daemons who faithfully lead them wherever they need to go. Maybe that's why Sho settled as he is.

Sho's weight causes a dip on the bed and he drops the book near his human. Instead of going for the book Rei runs his hand along Sho's spine, taking in the grooves of vertebrae and the smoothness of his fur.

"Thank you," he says quietly.

Sho relaxes into the natural curve of Rei where he fits perfectly, and gives a little 'huff' that could mean 'ya, ya' or 'of course' or 'what am I going to do with you, you poor little human'.

Rei scratches him behind the ears with a fond smile.


End file.
